27.9.11

FROM ZERO TO HERO

Many would argue Tony Knowles’s 10-1 demolition of Steve Davis in the first round of the 1982 World Championship remains hard to beat in this particular pub discussion.

Indeed, Davis’s surprise defeat of John Higgins in the 2010 World Championship would have to be up there, as would his reverse to Joe Johnson in the 1986 Crucible final.

A shock is so-called because nobody saw it coming. It can only feature a really big name.

For this reason, Stephen Hendry’s 9-0 defeat to Marcus Campbell in the first round of the 1998 UK Championship in Bournemouth has to rate very highly on the Richter scale of unfathomable results.

True, it was a pre-televised match, and thus more of a leveller. Also, Campbell had beaten Hendry at the Scottish Open the previous season.

And Hendry had been going through an unproductive period by his standards. He lost the 1997 world final to Ken Doherty and was bundled out of the first round in 1998 by his old foe, Jimmy White.

Even so, 9-0? Hendry losing to anyone 9-0? You could have named your own price at the start of the day.

I was there. The match was played over two afternoons. On the first of them, I can guarantee it took a while for anyone in the pressroom to even notice anything was happening.

Without wishing to shatter illusions, journalists tend not to be glued to the scoring monitors every waking moment.

By the time lunch has been eaten, the racing pages digested and all petty arguments got out of the way, usually about who has nicked whose chair or some such issue of great import, the matches are well underway.

I don’t remember much about that first afternoon but I’d imagine someone deigned to glance up at the monitor when Hendry was 3-0 down and remark that he’d have to pull his socks up.

It was best of 17. There was still plenty of time for him to get going.

At 5-0, the first mutterings of a shock result would start and at 8-0 at the end of the session the obituaries would be hammered out on every laptop in the room.

Hendry had staged many comebacks in his time but this would have been beyond the means of Lazarus.

He lost 9-0 the following day and we all piled into the press conference, fearing the worst.

This was a man who took to losing like Admiral Nelson took to arm wrestling.

However, he’d clearly had time overnight to accept his fate and think through the ramifications.

He spoke eloquently about the need to go back to the drawing board, to pull his game apart and rebuild it.

Looking back, losing 9-0 did him a favour. Had it been, say, 9-3 he may have been able to persuade himself that it was just one of those things, a bad day at the office.

But he was a proud man and to lose 9-0 to anyone was a humiliation.

It didn’t take long for Hendry to get it together again. In fact, he won a small tournament in Malta the following week.

By the time of the World Championship he had won the Scottish Open and Irish Masters. At the Crucible he would produce one of his best ever performances to land a seventh world title.

He was at his highest ever peak, but it started with one of his greatest ever lows.

It's arguable whether Hendry's defeat to Campbell ranks as the biggest shock of all time but, in terms of the effect it had on him and therefore the history of the game, it could well be the most significant.

I always found his 5-0 defeat to Mark Johnston-Allen a bigger shock as it came during his early 90s heyday when he just didnt lose to these kind of players. Think it was after this defeat he made that infamous ill judged comment about the likes of MJA who shouldnt even be in the same room as him, let alone playing snooker against him.

Davis and Knowles played next in the Scottish Masters when Davis won narrowly 5-4. From that time on Davis tended to win heavily - I can recall at least one 9-2 scoreline. I would need to search the record books for more as my memory is not what it was!

The biggest shock that is indelibly printed on my mind was Doug Mountjoy's incredible 16-12victory (at the age of 46)over Stephen Hendry in 1988.To think, he had only just totally dismantled his game and reinvented his style of play under the tutelage of the great Frank Callan. He made 3 consecutive centuries and the way he struck the ball throughout was sheer poetry in motion.If I was a bookmaker then and someone had wanted to bet Doug I would have said "Name your price" because he had 2 chances - none and slim and slim was out of town!Incidentally, does anyone know if Stephen Hendry has a new coach as he had a new cue action at the Brazilian Masters?

The Hendry result was shocking because you know he tried. Had it been an O'Sullivan or Maguire type it wouldn't have been that big an upset because they can lose their heads, interest and focus if things don't go their way.

Higgins winning the world and Mountjoy winning the masters as both players' first professional tournaments would have to be deemed pretty seismic shocks.

For me, Knowlsey's victory in 82 was probably the biggest. It was a time when anybody beating Davis was a major shock.

Hendry was past his best when he lost to Campbell, although the scoreline was certainly an eye opener.

Higgins winning the Irish Masters with an on the mend broken leg was also pretty admirable, but was only quoted by the bookies at 50-1 whereas Johnson defied odds of 150-1 in winning the 86 championship.

Its unlikely that we will see anything considered more of a shock from here on in than those of yesteryear. The standard down the rankings is now such that anyone can beat anyone these days.

In recent times i guess Davis's win over Higgins in last years WC must rank as one of the biggest shocks of all time given the match odds, i think Higgins was 1/16 or 1/25 and the length of the match and respective form shown by both prior to the event, stage of careers etc.

Predictable maybe, but the biggest shock still has to be Joe Johnson winning the WC. Anything can happen in a first round I guess, as the Knowles and Campbell defeats show, but that sort of result in a world final?? I bet a few gamblers were left broke after that match...

Mountjoy's win over Hendry was amazing, not just as he overwhelmed him (he led 15-7 prior to a fightback), but as he had been beaten 6 months earlier in the World Champs 13-1 and was considered a spent force.

Anyone remember Ray Reardon's 5-0 win over Steve Davis in the 1988 British Open? This was when Davis was at the peak of his powers and Reardon, as it turned out, was just 3 years from retirement.

I would have to say Hendry losing 10-4 in the first round at the Crucible to Jimmy White in 1998 was up there, because Hendry was never known to lose at that stage before now, he had been in the last six straight finals at Sheffield and noone really could see it coming as Jimmy was seemingly past his best. I remember turning on the tv and it being 4-0 to White and it being a shock!

In answer to Ray- not sure who people think of when they think of Hendry's coach. People of a certain age with an interest in snooker will always think of Frank Callan who coached Davis and Hendry. My understanding was that Hendry credited Callan in 1999 when he won title 7. At some point in the noughties perhaps due to Callan's age, he must be 90 now, Hendry was being coached by Chris Henry. As to whether that is still ongoing I don't know. I would have to disagree re the Johnson 1986 final- once Davis lost to Higgins and Taylor with a lead in the UK and World final it was clear he could loose a big final. Johnson was I am open to correction also a top 16 player who had reached the world amateur final so it was perhaps not as big a shock as people like to make out?

Remembering 1982 very well.I had a treble for 1237/1 consisting of TonyKnowles - Carola in the Eurovision and Sweden in Canada Cup.Knowles won, Carola was in the lead with two voters left and Sweden had ashot to the post with 30 sec left against Tjeckoslovakia (4-4) to win the Cup.A fun bet and pretty close.

No such thing as a "shock" in the first round. Surprises yes, but a result that just shouldn't happen, no. Some players don't mentally turn up to a tournament which is why there is a plethora of strange first round results down the years.

hahah... yes great shout there at 2:10PM - Ronnie vs Cliff Wilson, last 32 of the 1992 UK Championship.

9-8 to Wilson.

I'm pretty sure the cameras didn't come into the UK until the last 16 back then, so we'll never see it. Got to be the second most annoying "Can't ****ing believe there's no video of that"-type match, behind the 1972 World final, in my eyes.

I can sort of see the point of not pursuing it if the player has retried, but what's to stop him unretiring in a year or two? The circumstances surrounding the match are strong enough to warrant an investigation, and it gives players the chance to beat a lifetime ban by going into self-imposed exile for a season. If Michie decided to enter the Q school next year how would WS respond to that?

Admittedly Hendry losing 9-0 to MC was a massive shock but I think that Steve Davis losing the 1985 WC final to Dennis Taylor from 8-0 up has to push it close. I wonder what odds you would have got from the bookmakers on a Taylor victory when he was 8-0 down?? Davis was in his prime and went on to win another three world titles after that.

Davis had lost from a massive lead in 1983? UK championship against Higgins- so once it happened once it could happen again and whilst Taylor was low key he had made it to a world final in 79? -so shock value perhaps overstated?